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Campaign for SGPC polls ends

CHANDIGARH, JULY 9. Campaigning for elections to the 170-member Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) came to an end in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh and Chandigarh this evening, ahead of polls on Sunday.

Barring the intra-party shootout at an election rally of the Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) at nearby Kharar town on July 2, campaigning, by and large, remained peaceful. Two Akali activists had died and three wounded in the Kharar shootout. Rajvir Singh Padiala, State vice-president of the SAD, who had surrendered to police two days after the shootout, was today remanded to judicial custody till July 23 after the expiry of his two-day police remand, while Kiranbeer Singh Kang, the second main accused who belongs to the Youth Akali Dal, the youth wing of SAD, is, however, still eluding capture after his escape from police custody at PGI here on July 2.

The contest for the cash-rich Sikh body, which manages historic Gurdwaras in the region, is mainly between the SAD led by Parkash Singh Badal and Panthic Morcha, a conglomerate of various anti-Badal Akali factions and other Sikh bodies, also opposing to the SAD supremo.

The Chief Commissioner of Gurdwara Elections (CCGE), J S Sekhon today said voters' list had almost been finalised after the deletion of about 7000 bogus electors.

The bogus voters, included `Sehajdharis'(Sikhs with short hair), some 70 Muslims and 25 Hindus as also under-age voters. Sehajdharis had been disenfranchised, while voter's enrolment age in SGPC elections is 21 years as against 18 in legislative elections. The Muslim and Hindu voters were detected mostly in Fatehgarh Sahib-Patiala area following complaints, Justice Sekhon said. UNI

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